Macaque monkeys appear to have become an unlikely roadblock in the development of internet services in the northern Indian city of Varanasi.
The authorities in Varanasi have been increasing the network of optical fibre cables as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of improving internet services in India.
The federal government has planned to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India’s 250,000 village clusters within three years.
But officials in the city in Uttar Pradesh state are struggling to stop monkeys from eating the fibre-optic cables, according to a news agency report.
“We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires,” communications engineer AP Srivastava said.
Varanasi, which is also the parliamentary constituency of Modi, is known as a holy city and millions visit its famous banks along the Ganges river every year.
Many such tourists, and even locals, consider macaque monkeys sacred and often feed them.
Srivastava told that his team was now looking for alternatives, but there are few to be found.
Houses and building are too close to each other, making it difficult for authorities to consider laying underground cables.
And chasing away the monkeys is also not an option because it may anger local residents.